35000, it is possible!

[Tarbie]

My mate hammers ST holder they virtually gave them away £200 for a season but you had to commit to buy for 2 years, also they can afford to be cheap when the tax payer is picking up the entire bill for the stadium, they have no outlay whatsoever other than the footballing costs, the deal they have is totally crooked, we would never fill a 35000 seat stadium 30.000 would be ample big enough.

Dangerous deal for West Ham too in my opinion. Yeah, it's great for the club to be able to liquidate a substantial asset like Upton Park. I'm not 100% what happened to the ground but I assume that it's been knocked down and the land sold to property developers, no doubt for hundreds of millions.

I can see the appeal of the cash injection provided by the sale of the ground plus the potential revenues associated in increasing their average attendance. Yes, they've had to discount ticket prices in year 1 and 2 but if they provide the right match day experience then they will get away with returning them to normal in a few years time without losing too many season ticket holders.

The counter argument is that there have never really been any recent success stories of clubs selling their ground in favour of moving into a rented stadium. Ask Coventry or Brighton fans if you are in any doubt. It took Brighton years to sort out that mess after their chairman sold the stadium and who knows what will become of Coventry, I doubt they will ever have the cash to own their own stadium again.

Now I know West Ham are sitting pretty in the Premier League and earning big TV revenue. They also have 99 year lease on the Olympic Stadium and it don't think it's costing them much. But real estate isn't getting any cheaper in this country and at some stage it is going to hurt them that they don't own a ground. Also, it means they absolutely need to stay in the top flight, as there is no point running a 60,000 seater stadium for a Tuesday night Championship fixture against Burton Albion!

As for the initial post suggesting we can fill a 35,000 seater on a regular basis...........yeah, only if we give tickets away!

[NW_Hoopz]

"cannot compare them to us up until Chelsea were formed circa 2004"



Biggest mistake TF made was turning up and immediately proclaiming a 40k stadium on no evidential basis, it was clear he didn't have a scooby about the history of the club, all it did was create unrealistic expectations that are continuing to this day.

Uncle doesn't need to know/understand our history, he needs a massive music arena to turn a profit

[1974Rs]

@tarbie

You've missed the point there, they don't pay for running the stadium so if they were in league 2 with 100 supporters the cost doesn't change 2mill a year whatever it is.

[Shepherds Mush]

My mate hammers ST holder they virtually gave them away £200 for a season but you had to commit to buy for 2 years, also they can afford to be cheap when the tax payer is picking up the entire bill for the stadium, they have no outlay whatsoever other than the footballing costs, the deal they have is totally crooked, we would never fill a 35000 seat stadium 30.000 would be ample big enough.

They have to pay £2.5m a year in rent don't they? Half that if they drop out of the PL.

[1974Rs]

They have to pay £2.5m a year in rent don't they? Half that if they drop out of the PL.

One season in PL pays for that 99 year lease!

[1974Rs]

I'm sure policing alone is near 500k a game that they don't even have to worry about.